Join our team

Unwrapit is a Toronto-based startup revealing the future of corporate and event gifting. We are seeking a technical co-founder to join Peter Deitz in bringing Unwrapit’s brand promise and product vision to life. Peter is a successful serial entrepreneur committed to creating enduring companies that have a deeply-rooted social and environmental purpose. The role can be based anywhere in Canada, preferably Toronto or Montreal.

About Unwrapit

Founded in 2017, Unwrapit is a digital gift giving platform that helps today’s companies strengthen their most important human relationships, wherever they may be, through extraordinary gift experiences.

To date, Unwrapit has relied on contracted product, design, and software development skills to develop its MVP and run successful, paid pilots with business customers. Our solution is now more relevant and timely than ever. To meet the rapidly increasing demand for virtual gifting solutions, and to produce a more sophisticated product, we are bringing these critical skills in-house through an expanded founding team.

Unwrapit has received support from Ontario Centres for Excellence’s SmartStart Fund, Futurpreneur, Alterna Savings, and the City of Toronto. Unwrapit is a member of the Upside Foundation of Canada, 1% for the Planet, and CSI’s Climate Ventures. The company receives advisory services from VentureLAB and graduated from the Founder Institute accelerator. Unwrapit intends to become a registered B Corp in 2021.

About the role

As the technical co-founder, you will ensure Unwrapit’s core product is built from the ground up using best-in-class frameworks and platforms to enable and sustain rapid growth while minimizing technical debt.

In the immediate term, you will work closely with the two other co-founders, advisors, and paid contractors to ensure Unwrapit launches a solid v2 of its product that can be piloted and gaining traction by Fall 2020. Over time, you will build out and support an engineering team that accounts for various functions, including: product architecture; technical team recruiting; frontend and backend development; platform security and redundancy; 3rd party integrations; prototype development; and coordination with the product, operations, and business development teams.

Key Accountabilities from Day 1

You will make architectural design decisions that set the technical direction of the company, determining the stack of platforms, languages, and protocols that Unwrapit is built on
You will architect and code highly scalable software and APIs, such as Unwrapit’s core, market-facing products as well as internal systems that provide a competitive advantage
You will use your expertise to determine technical paths in launching Unwrapit’s product in market, considering scalability, performance, and security
You will contribute to strategic business planning as part of the founding team, building and executing according to budgets, priorities, and commitments agreed to as a team

Minimum Qualifications

You have 8-10+ years experience in senior software engineering and system architecture positions, and a track record of leading teams to exceed internal and external expectations
You are comfortable working across the full software development stack to ensure the highest standards of quality and to create industry-leading digital experiences
You love the satisfaction that comes from building software that strikes the perfect balance between simplicity, flexibility, and functionality
You are adept at finding the teams and projects that you’re passionate about, where you can most help humanity thrive

Current team

Unwrapit is also recruiting for a product focused co-founder. The two co-founders will join Peter Deitz, who will fill the role of Co-Founder, Operations and Business Development.

In addition to the expanded founding team, Unwrapit is bringing together an experienced group of advisors with industry-specific expertise and experience working in technology scale-ups, product development, enterprise marketing, talent, and governance. Unwrapit also has a close working relationship with design and UX/UI contractors, including the team at You X Ventures, who will remain involved and at times serve as extensions of the Unwrapit team.

Values

A central pillar of Unwrapit is creating and sustaining a work environment that fosters psychological safety, which evidence shows leads to innovation, resilience, and excellence. As a co-founder, you will join Peter in modelling and embodying the following abilities:

Cultivate and nurture trust in yourself and others
Be forthright about what you definitely can do and what you definitely can’t
Be open to giving and receiving feedback to help yourself and others succeed
Take great joy in the big, long-term wins and the small, daily achievements
Accept setbacks as a necessary part of creative work
Be willing to strongly defend what you believe in
Model flexibility and curiosity with everything else
Work hard, work collaboratively, and have fun

Compensation

Initially, this is an equity-only role. Unwrapit is pursuing a seed round to invest in its product development, go to market strategy, and follow-on hiring. To address lost / diminished salary in the short term and to ensure we as a founding team are all invested in Unwrapit’s future success, you will earn into a 15% – 20% pre-investment equity position, details of which will be shared during the recruiting process. Earned revenue and seed round investments allocated to co-founder salaries will be distributed equally among the three co-founders up to an eventual salary of CAD $125,000 plus a comprehensive health benefits package (already in place) and other perks that we as a founding team determine are important.

How to apply

Unwrapit intends to fill the Co-Founder, Engineering role by August 2020. To apply, please schedule an exploratory conversation with Peter using the following link:

Schedule an exploratory conversation

Following the exploratory conversation, if there’s a shared sense of excitement and a clear drive to make Unwrapit’s vision come to life, Peter will ask for 3 references and a one-page purpose statement or recorded video that answers the question: “Why You, Why Now, Why Unwrapit?” Peter will subsequently invite a shortlist of potential co-founders to complete and present a brief exercise or activity of their choosing and be interviewed by one or more of Unwrapit’s advisors.